Metro Last Light
Metro: Last Light (formerly known as Metro 2034, and often abbreviated as simply, Last Light) is a Post-Apocalyptic First Person Shooter, and sequel to Metro 2033 developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Sliver. The game was released on May 14, 2013 for the US and released on the 17th of May in Republic of Ireland and Europe. It is available on Xbox 360, PC, via Steam, and on PlayStation 3. Overview As the sequel Metro 2033, Metro Last Light follows the same gameplay formula. With the player character, Artyom, journeying across linear sections of the metro and an irradiated surface of post-apocalyptic Moscow, hoping to save what's left of humanity, long after World War III. In this inhospitable landscape the player must guide Artyom into following friends, battling dangerous mutants, as well as engaging in either firefights with enemy factions, or complex stealth missions in which remaining unseen is vital for survival. The story takes place after Metro 2033, with a new story guided by Dmitry Glukhovsky but written in house at 4A-Games. The story will continue from the canonical ending of the previous game, in which Artyom destroyed the dark ones. In this setting Artyom, Khan and many others Rangers join forces once again to defend D6 from many foes including the Fourth Reich, communists and bandits. With this new installment 4A has introduced a multitude of new weapons, such as the bolt-action rifle, a single-shot pistol, a hand powered chain gun, as well new locations to play in. The game was released on May 14th, 2013, on Xbox 360, PC and, unlike Metro 2033, PS3. Metro: Last Light was announced at E3 2011 to appear on the new Nintendo Console, the Wii U, however, one year later at E3 2012 it was confirmed that the Wii U would not be seeing Metro Last Light. Plot Synopsis Metro: Last Light takes place one year after the events of Metro 2033, proceeding from the ending where Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. The Rangers have since occupied the D6 military facility, with Artyom having become an official member of the group. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single DarkBaby Dark OneOne survived the missile strike. Khan believes the Dark One is the key to humanity's future, and wants to make peace with it, while Ranger leader Colonel Miller wants to kill the creature due to its potential threat. Miller sends Artyom to the surface with a mission to kill the Dark One; he is accompanied by Anna, Miller's sarcastic daughter and the Rangers' best sniper. Artyom succeeds in finding the Dark One, who turns out to be a mere child, but the two of them are captured by soldiers of the Nazi Reich. A good-natured communist Red Line soldier, Pavel Morozov, helps Artyom escape the Reich, and the two befriend each other after spending considerable time fighting across the metro tunnels and the wasted surface together. However, when the two reach a Red Line settlement, Pavel is revealed to be a high-ranking officer of the Red Line and allows them to capture Artyom. While escaping captivity, Artyom learns of a plan by the Red Line's head of military intelligence, General Korbut, to capture D6 and take control of the entire metro. Korbut is assisted by Pavel as well as Lesnitsky, a traitorous Ranger who escaped to the Red Line with samples of a bioweapon stolen from D6. Artyom manages to rescue the Dark One child, with Khan's assistance. After a series of flashbacks where Artyom learns the Dark Ones saved his own life when he was a child, Artyom decides to protect the Dark One. While escorting the Dark One back to Polis, Artyom is confronted by first Lesnitsky and later Pavel. The Dark One uses his powers to read their minds, allowing Artyom to learn of General Korbut's plan to capture D6 and use a bioweapon from the facility to exterminate all human life in the Metro not aligned with the Red Line. After each confrontation, Artyom is given the choice of forgiving his enemy, or taking revenge on them. The two arrive at Polis, the metro's central station, where a peace settlement between Hansa, Red Line, and Reich is taking place. The Dark One uses his telepathic abilities to make the Red Line leader Chairman Moskvin publically confess his crimes, including the fact that the peace conference is simply a diversion for General Korbut to attack D6. Artyom, Miller, Khan, and the Rangers make a final stand against Korbut's army, and after they are nearly defeated, plan to destonate D6. As they do so, General Korbut's secret weapon, an armored train breaks through the defensive line and destorys the platofrm, incapacitating all of the defenders. A heavily injured Artyom awakes to the group surrounded by Korbut and his men, who are preparing to execute them. There are two endings to the game following this. In the bad ending, Artyom will activate D6's self-destruct device to prevent Korbut from using the facility to wipe out the remnants of humanity, resulting in the deaths of both the Ranger and Red Army. Artyom is survived by Anna, who is shown an unspecified time later telling her and Artyom's child of his father's adventures. In the good ending, Artyom prepares to activate the device, but is stopped by the Dark One child, who arrives along with several other surviving Dark Ones who had been hibernating inside a secret chamber in D6; the Dark Ones defeat Korbut's army, making it unnecessary for Artyom to sacrifice himself and D6. Artyom credits the Dark One child with being humanity's "last light" of hope for his efforts. In both endings, after the events of the game, the Dark One child leaves with the surviving Dark Ones, promising either Anna or Artyom that they would come back to help the world rebuild. Pre-Release Media Following the announcement teaser were E3 2011's media releases, during which a trailer and several concept arts had been released along with a small (non-video) walkthrough given to journalists. A twelve minute gameplay demo had been released, detailing Artyom and Khan's infiltration into the Fourth Reich, as well as several other interviews. In the weeks before E3 2012, THQ produced a four-minute long live action short outlining the general panic of when the bombs fell At E3 2012, it has produced numerous new videos and interviews outlining new characters, supernatural segments, and the possible return of vengeful dark ones. In early December, a multitude of interviews were released along with short gameplay segments detailing several metro stations, including Venice; a large station with many canals running through it. Weapon customization was detailed, with retailers selling a myriad of attachments for all weapons, including night-vision sights, silencers, muzzle brakes, and laser sights. In March 2013, a new tralier was released, titled "Salvation." It depicted poor, restless citizens of various stations in their normal lives in the Metro. It then changes to the subject of the Fourth Reich, showing crowds hailing their commander, the unnamed Führer. Multiple clips of Nazi soldiers training themselves were shown, as well as two soldiers executing prisoners with Kalashes. A short scene is shown in which six men are barracading themselves with riot shields of some sort. A seventh man comes in from between them and sprays fire around with a flame thrower. At the very end, a young boy is shown in the reflection of what appears to be a Dark One's black eye. Gameplay Artyom's watch is significantly different in Last Light, but the gas mask/filter system is the same. Moral points are included, as are double endings. The stealth and trading systems are relatively the same. In addition to previous tasks, the player now must wipe blood and other gore from the screen; not to mention rain when the player traverses the surface. Weapon reload time, battery charge time and Artyom's movement have all seen an increase in efficiency. This could either be to signify Artyom's expertise with weaponry, now that he is a ranger - or a way to increase the pace of the gameplay for newcomers, thus making the game more accessible. These changes have been met with mixed reactions from long-time fans of Metro 2033. Hitmarkers are confirmed to be present in the game, however, they are disabled in Ranger difficulties. Reception Metro: Last Light received mostly positive reviews, with most complimenting the game's graphics and story, however, critcizing the linear gameplays and the character animation. Game Informer's Jeff Marchiafava gave the game a rating of 8.75/10, stating that human AI has been greatly improved. IGN's Colin Moriarty stated as verdict that "Metro: Last Light is a bold post-apocalyptic first person shooter adventure uniquley told from the Russian point of view". Last Light's setting and presentation are its strong points, though the last third of its campaign is weaker then everything that came before it stated Colin. He scored it 7.2/10 for consoles and 7.7/10 for the PC. Of the highest reviews, GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd awarded it with a 9.0/10 calling it "an astonishing and moving post-apocalyptic journey", with GameTrailer's Nathan Meunier awarding "one of the best looking and unique shooters of the year ... with an incredible atmosphere that really sticks", the highest score of 9.1/10. Limited Edition It was revealed in December that all initial run copies would be the Limited Edition of Metro: Last Light and include Ranger Mode, an extra 100 military-grade rounds, and a Modified Russian Rifle. In other countries, an RPK-74 is shown with drum magazines. The RPK-74 is available in the US with a GameStop pre-order. Many gaming stores in Poland offer both the AKS-74U and the RPK-17 as part of the deal. Some other countries around the world seem to have this deal, whilst others do not. Although the Limited Edition offer varies from region to region, the features that all of its iterations have in common are the Ranger difficulty modes and the bonus ammunition. The Limited Edition caused controversy among many gaming enthusiasts up to and after the release. Many people were upset over the fact of not getting Ranger Mode without pre-ordering, buying a first-run copy in the month of release, or paying $5.00/4.00 euro, for the DLC. Even more-so, it was widely discussed that, unlike the Ranger Pack DLC in Metro 2033, the extra difficulties had originally been designed within the game and then removed for DLC sales. A number of fans and vocal members of the game-community alike further complained when Deep Silver's promotional advertisements stated that the Ranger Mode was "the way the game was meant to be played" - questioning why, if it was the genuine version of the game, it was not bundled with the standard product. An official response by Huw Beynon explained that content had been a mandatory requirement for a pre-order bonus, and rather than remove story elements or missions from the game, they opted to remove an extra difficulty setting, knowing that fans who would most be interested in the setting, would most likely be pre-ordering the game regardless. Furthermore much of the Limited Edition controversy pertaining to frequently frowned upon micro-transactions, could be attributed to the fact that the pre-order bonus had to remain unchanged from the bankrupting THQ's initial policy, lest thousands of Limited Edition pre-orders from multiple vendors have to be refunded for another offer designated by Koch Media. Downloadable Content There are four add-ons for Metro: Last Light *Faction Pack: Includes a new and original single player story that expands on the Metro: Last Light universe. Release date: mid-July 2013 *Chronicles Pack: A story-focused campaign. Release date: TBA, 2013 (to be announced) *Tower Pack: Will present a unique solo challenge to Metro veterans. Release date: TBA, 2013 *Developer Pack: Gives players some interesting tools with, which to explore the world of Metro. Release date: TBA, 2013 Gamers who purchase the Metro: Last Light DLC Season Pass will also receive a new semi-automatic shotgun rifle called Abzats. The other packs will be released over the 60 days following the release of the Faction Pack. Trivia *During the early official trailers, the song "Machine Gun" by Portishead was used. *On May 26, 2012, a new reel of gameplay footage was released on Gametrailers.com, but was quickly removed; fortunately for fans, it had been copied and uploaded it to YouTube. *Multiplayer that was originally in development for the Metro 2033 was put on hold once again. 4A Games made a decision to concentrate on single player campaign first. Developers claim that it might be released as Free-To-Play (F2P) Downloadable Content (DLC) afterwards.Excerpt from an interview with Andrew Prokhorov *OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) said in its preview that the game has a comparison to Valves game Half Life 2, which is understandable since Metro: Last Lights old publisher THQ said that it rekindles memories to Half Life 2. References Gallery Teaser Art Metrollannouncekeyart.jpg M2034_concept_0001.jpg M2034_concept_0003.jpg M2034_concept_0002.jpg M2034_concept_0004.jpg M2034_concept_0005.jpg M2034_concept_0006.jpg M2034_concept_0007.jpg LastLightRussianOfficialArtC.jpg LastLightRussianOfficialArtB.jpg LastLightRussianOfficialArtA.png Early Promotional Screenshots Metrollss2.jpg Metrollss7.jpg Metrollss6.jpg Metrollss1.jpg Last_Light_0001.jpg Last_Light_0002.jpg 0003.jpg Last_Light_0004.jpg Last_Light_0005.jpg lastlightmultiplayerupdatepic.jpg LastLightRussianOfficialScreenshotD.jpg LastLightRussianOfficialScreenshotC.jpg LastLightRussianOfficialScreenshotB.jpg LastLightRussianOfficialScreenshotA.jpg Gameinformer Preview 00001a.jpg 00002a.jpg 00003a.jpg 00004a.jpg 00005a.jpg 00006a.jpg 00007a.jpg 00008a.jpg 00009a.jpg 00010a.jpg 00011a.jpg 00012a.jpg December 2012 061201.jpg 061202.jpg 061203.jpg 061204.jpg 061205.jpg 061206.jpg Holiday 2012/2013 LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot1.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot2.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot3.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot4.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot5.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot6.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot7.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot8.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot9.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot10.jpg LastLightHoliday2012Screenshot11.jpg March 2013 MLL_DS_0001.jpg MLL_DS_0002.jpg MLL_DS_0003.jpg MLL_DS_0004.jpg MLL_DS_0005.jpg MLL_DS_0006.jpg MLL_DS_0007.jpg MLL_DS_0008.jpg MLL_DS_0009.jpg MLL_DS_0010.jpg MLL_DS_0011.jpg Video Video:Metro Last Light Announcement Trailer|Early Promotional - Announcement Teaser Video:Metro Last Light E3 Gameplay Trailer|Early Promotional - E3 Gameplay Trailer Metro_Last_Light_-_Enter_the_Metro_Video|"Enter the Metro" Trailer File:Metro Last Light E3 2012 Stage Demo|E3 2012 Gameplay Metro_Last_Light_-_The_Preacher_Trailer|The Preacher Trailer Metro Last Light - The Model Trailer|The Model Trailer Metro Last Light - Commander Trailer|Commander Trailer Metro Last Light - Genesis Video|Genesis Trailer File:Metro Last Light - "Salvation" Gameplay Trailer (Official U.K. Version)|Salvation Trailer File:Metro Last Light - Ranger Survival Guide Chapter 1|Ranger Survival Guide - Chapter 1 File:Metro Last Light - Ranger Survival Guide Chapter 2|Ranger Survival Guide - Chapter 2 File:Metro Last Light - Ranger Survival Guide - Chapter 3 - Weapons and Inventory||Ranger Survival Guide - Chapter 3 File:Metro Last Light Trailer 3|Redemption Trailer File:Metro Last Light North American Launch Trailer|North American Launch Trailer File:Metro Last Light - Mobius Trailer|Post-Release Mobius Trailer Category:Video Games